Configurable hardware has not yet been implemented into commercial mobile terminals due to a lack of maturity of the technology, but future generation mobile terminals and other products are expected to require this type of hardware architecture in order to reduce power consumption and extend their functionality to new and more demanding applications, such as multi-media applications.
The conventional approach to mobile terminal design is to employ a general purpose digital signal processor (DSP) and possibly a custom integrated circuit, such as an ASIC, for the desired application(s). However, this conventional approach is proving to be less than adequate as mobile terminal applications increase in complexity and processing requirements. This is true at least for the reasons that the power consumption can be increased to the point that the power dissipation within the device becomes an important issue, and a lack of flexibility can result in wasted resources if the overall architecture must be designed to accommodate the most demanding applications.